what I thought about “On the Virtues of Not Knowing”

This essay from chapter 5 of Eleanor Duckworth’s book “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” was not anything I was expecting. I could actually relate to it in the sense that I have been in many classes where the right answer was more important than how I arrived at it. Typically, tests are given to measure how well you grasped a concept, or as Dr. Duckworth put it, “…fill in the blank and move on…”. The problem with that approach is you do not know if the student simply memorized the answers or actually understands the reasoning behind that “right” answer. In science, for instance, observations during an experiment can sometimes support multiple conclusions. Should a student that can explain, in dept, more than one potential conclusion or an alternative conclusion to one provided by a teacher get a deduction in points because they did not arrive at the “correct” answer? I don’t think so. If anything, this student should be praised for thinking outside the box and using their reasoning skills.